I
was working on a project today that included a section from Genesis 6. I
thought you might find it an interesting Bible study. In order to understand it
in its context you must know the following definitions:
(1) TOV -- The Creator created TOV (good)
by doing acts that were beautiful and pleasant to His eyes because they protected
life, preserved life, made life more functional, and/or increased the quality
of life.
(2) RA -- Man created RA (evil) by
doing acts that were not beautiful and pleasant to the Creator’s eyes because they
destroyed life, threatened life, made life less functional, and/or decreased
the quality of life.
(3) SHALOM – totality, completeness, and wholeness.
Now
let’s look at the text from Genesis 6:
Yahweh saw how great
the RA (evil) of mankind had become
on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of
mankind was only RA (evil) all of the
day. Yahweh regretted that he had made mankind on the earth. He was grieved
and or outraged to His heart. Yahweh said, “I will
wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth — from man to beast
, to creeping thing, and to the winged creatures of the skies — for I regret
that I have made them.”[i]
As
the descendants of Seth’s line intermarried with the other groups, his descendants
became like them – except for Noah. Acts
of RA (evil) increased until they reached the point that Yahweh regretted making
mankind. Pay close attention to how the text describes Yahweh – He was grieved and outraged. The legends of Cain and Lamech led to an entire
generation who valued doing evil, violence and death more than they valued
doing TOV, SHALOM and life. Yahweh was ready to destroy them all until He
saw one man -- Noah.
Look
at the world in which Noah lived.
Now the earth was
corrupt in the Creator’s sight and was full of HAMAS. The Creator saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all
the people on earth had corrupted their ways. The Creator said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for
the earth is filled with HAMAS because
of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.[iii]
HAMAS is defined as violence, wrong, and being a false witness. It is used to
describe “knocking off” part of a
plant and “stripping its fruit.”[iv]
This sounds a lot like the world we live in today, doesn’t it?
What
is the solution to changing a world like that? It is found in the words Yahweh
spoke to Cain before he killed his brother Abel:
(Yahweh said) “Surely,
if you do TOV, you shall be
upstanding, if you do not do TOV, sin will be a like a crouching
animal at your door; its desire shall be for you, but you will be able to
master it.”[v]
The
story of Cain and Abel emphatically established a foundational moral principle:
Man is indeed
his brother’s keeper and every homicide is at the same time fratricide –an act
of killing one’s brother.
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